By Eugene DeSilva, Vice President, Small and Medium Enterprise Global Products, MasterCard Worldwide

For every small business owner, the holiday season and the start of the New Year brings excitement about new business opportunities and strategies to increase sales. They’re looking for tools and solutions that can have an immediate, real impact on helping their businesses thrive, whether it be saving money or maximizing the assets currently in place. We share a focus with Microsoft to meet these needs, driving real impact for small businesses in two areas that are at core of their businesses – payments and technologies.

That is why we’re excited about a new initiative with Microsoft that enhances our shared commitment to small businesses.  For MasterCard, the heart of our small business offering is the Easy Savings program – and yes, it’s as easy as it sounds! MasterCard small business credit and debit cardholders enrolled in the program receive automatic rebates in a variety of business categories, such as fuel and maintenance, office services, travel and entertainment, and shipping. This translates into immediate cost savings on the essential purchases small businesses need to run their daily operations.

The newest service in the MasterCard Easy Savings program is Microsoft Office 365 – a cloud service that gives small businesses access to email, documents, contacts and calendars from virtually anywhere on almost any device. While Office 365 is already a hit among small businesses, MasterCard is making it even more attractive by offering small business cardholders enrolled in the Easy Savings Program a 10 percent savings on subscriptions to the service.  You can find out more here.

This latest initiative by MasterCard and Microsoft builds on a shared commitment to helping small business grow and succeed. For example, check out the first of several videos of Shwood Handcrafted Wooden Eyewear, the winner of the America’s Favorite Small Business contest that celebrated the entrepreneurial spirit of small business owners. Shwood is a member of the Easy Savings program – utilizing the automatic rebates to save on their in-house logistics – and an example of how a small business can benefit from simple programs that offer value.  We look forward to future collaborations with Microsoft and creating more easy and effective solutions to empower small business success.